Positioning and the discourses of urban education: A Latino student’s university experience

Based on data collected from a year-and-a-half-long qualitative research project, this case study examines the early college experiences and identity negotiations of one urban-schooled Latino participant as he navigated a predominately White state university in his hometown. Recognizing the university as a figured world, this study highlights two emblematic personal encounters that positioned him in inferior ways. It also offers a counter-example of a rhetoric professor who positioned him in positive ways and contributed to his academic success. Implications are framed in an argument for the inclusion of identity studies and positioning theory in order to better contextualize urban-schooled Latina/os’ early college experiences

Silence(ing) across learning spaces: New considerations for educational research aims and rationale

This special issue represents the collaborative work from a group of nine literacy scholars across the U.S. focused on the complexities of silence (i.e., absences of or hidden communicative assertions, histories, and cultural values) in discourse and how such complexities shape what is said or explicitly communicated during social interactions. What counts as silence in discourse? What roles can silence play in shaping or refining perspectives on or assumptions about reality and one's position in society or within local community spaces? Is silence, or the act of silencing, necessarily bad, or are there instantiations of such that foster collective insight and understanding? What can silence tell us in a post-truth era? The aims of this issue is to (a) make visible what silence, or the act of silencing, looks and sounds like in social learning contexts; and (b) provide scholars ways to use this elusive construct for unpacking the cultural and linguistic biases that are prevalent in educational contexts (Blaise, 2012; Sunderland, Cowley, Rahim, Leontzakou & Shattuck, 2000; Wolfe, 2000)

Positioning students as readers and writers through talk in a high school English classroom

This 5-month qualitative study investigates how one high school English teacher situated students as readers and writers within daily, spontaneous classroom interactions. Specifically, the author draws on positioning theory (van Langenhove & Harré, 1999) as a lens to analyze how the teacher navigated improvised responses during three separate literacy events to position students as engaged readers, capable writers, and members of a writing community. This approach construes that literacy learning is an identity process in which language is a powerful medium. Results from the study suggest that teachers must be sophisticated navigators of improvised interactions to facilitate the process of literacy learning. Vetter offers suggestions to teacher educators about how to implement critical analysis of classroom interactions and improvised responses to improve literacy instruction

Asking Teens about Their Writing Lives: The Writing Identity Work of Youth

Framed by theories of youth, culture, identity studies, and literacy identity formation, this article examines how youth articulate themselves as writers. Using interview transcripts, analysis explored writing identity from the perspective of teens in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Findings from this qualitative study suggest that youth used various cultural artifacts, both conceptual and material, to feel and/or seem like a writer within multiple contexts. Specifically examined are the ways in which teens negotiated various identities as writers, including whether and how they drew on specific artifacts to embrace, resist and negotiate the following: (a) standardization, (b) meaning and relevance, (d) support, and (d) identities. In particular, findings illustrated the significance of spaces that provided opportunities for students to both feel and seem like a writer, and highlighted the nuanced ways in which seeming and feeling like a writer are shaped by social and cultural factors. Implications point to providing teens more opportunities to engage in the identity work of writers within multiple spaces, where support, choice, and time to talk about how society conceptualizes writing and what writing means to them are present

Making room for collaboration and teacher research in professional learning communities

Over five months, six middle school teachers gathered together every other week to participate in a “teacher research” professional learning community (TR PLC). As the facilitators of the TR PLC, we witnessed how this group of teachers, over time, began to see themselves and their teaching differently as a result of engaging socially with each other and conducting teacher research. One participant, Ben (all names are pseudonyms), an English Language Arts teacher, shared in an interview that for the first time, he felt there was “room” for him to collaborate with his colleagues as an equal since they were all learning about teacher research together. For him, the TR PLC created a social space where the distinctions between novice and veteran teachers were lessened

“You need some laugh bones!”: Leveraging AAL in a high school English classroom

The purpose of this study was to examine how a White teacher (Gina) responded to African American Language (AAL) in ways that situated students as valuable members of a high school English classroom. This 5-month qualitative study in a 10th grade classroom drew from positioning theory and discourse analysis to make sense of classroom interactions with AAL. Findings show that although Gina was not fluent in AAL, she leveraged it in ways that positioned students as members of the literacy community by doing the following: (a) opening opportunities for students to use AAL in ways that contributed to the community, (b) not dismissing or ridiculing the use of AAL, and (c) maintaining a classroom of respect when AAL was used in ways that disrespected that community. Implications from the study suggest that teaching high school English is not only about knowledge of content or best practices but also about leveraging multiple languages in ways that position students as participants of a literacy community

“'Cause I'm a G”: Identity Work of a Lesbian Teen in Language Arts

Framed around the perspective that identities matter in relation to literacy learning, this case study examined the identity work of June (pseudonym), a lesbian youth in an 11th-grade high school language arts classroom. Informal interviews with June about her work on a multigenre research project in relation to LGBTQ issues were analyzed using the constant-comparative method and discourse analysis. Findings indicate that she positioned herself as a reader and writer in new ways because of an assignment that provided her the opportunity to explore her sexuality. I propose that teachers consider making youth's experiences, including LGBTQ experiences, the centerpiece of literacy instruction. More work, however, needs to be done to explore how educators can create curricula and school communities that recognize and celebrate sexual identities as a part of literacy learning

Crafting Communities of Writers: Advice from Teens

Ava, a middle schooler in Texas, says she doesn’t “think [teachers] . . . see . . . the full potential of what students could really be as writers.” Camden, a high school student in North Carolina, calls for writing in schools that welcomes students interacting with each other. “I feel like if [teachers] give [students] time to talk with each other about what they’re [writing] it might help,” he says. (All students’ names are pseudonyms.) Asking young people about their writing lives prompts English language arts (ELA) educators to see students as more—as capable and collaborative writers who have the potential to refine and enhance their writing practices

Critical talk moves in critical conversations: examining power and privilege in an English Language Arts classroom

Critical conversations take on heightened importance with current tensions about issues involving race, income inequality, sexual orientation, and gender identity, both locally and globally. These tensions demonstrate a dire need for classroom discussions about literature to serve as a space where youth engage in rigorous, critical conversations about institutionalised forms of privilege and oppression and learn how to act as agents of change. To address that need, this study explored how teacher talk moves shaped critical conversations in one U.S. secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. Findings illustrate that the teacher engaged in the following four families of critical talk moves to foster critical conversations: inquiry, inclusion, disruption, and action. Implications remind teachers that using critical talk moves to foster critical conversations involves the consistent practice of critical self-reflection, vulnerability, and knowledge about critical theories and pedagogies

Shifting language ideologies and pedagogies to be anti-racist: a reconstructive discourse analysis of one ELA teacher inquiry group

Purpose This paper aims to present findings from a three-year qualitative study that used a model of teacher learning referred to as teaching as inquiry (Manfra, 2019). Teaching as inquiry centers the teacher as a learner in a prolonged and “systematic process of data collection and analysis focused on changing teaching” (p. 167). Findings from the larger qualitative study demonstrate the work of collecting transcripts and using discourse analysis to analyze classroom discourse fostered high school English teachers’ knowledge and skills for facilitating critical conversations (Schieble et al., 2020). For this paper, the authors highlight Paula, a white, female secondary teacher who is dual certified in English Language Arts and ESL. Findings from Paula’s case demonstrate the ways the teacher inquiry group disrupted Paula’s language ideologies of linguistic purism, an ideology embedded in white supremacist and colonialist, hegemonic language policies and practices (Kroskrity, 2004), and transformed her instructional practices over time.Design/methodology/approach The research used qualitative methods for design and scope to generate an information-rich instrumental case study (Stake, 1995). Case study is a form of qualitative inquiry that concentrates on experiential knowledge of the case. This study used case study methods to construct an instrumental case to understand how participation in the teacher inquiry group shaped Paula’s facilitation of critical conversations. Data analysis used inductive and deductive qualitative coding procedures and discourse analysis (Gee, 2004; Rogers, 2018) to address the research questions.Findings Findings demonstrate that prior to meeting with the teacher inquiry group, Paula’s teaching practices embodied linguistic separatism by emphasizing that standardized English was the “appropriate” way to participate in critical conversations. Through studying her classroom discourse, the inquiry group supported her to critically question these instructional practices and ideologies. Findings demonstrate that the work of the inquiry group supported her embodiment and articulation of a translanguaging ideology that supported her facilitation of critical conversations.Originality/value Findings from this study contributes to scholarly and professional knowledge about how models of teaching as inquiry (Manfra, 2019) demonstrate a positive or reconstructive impact on teacher and student learning. This study highlights the potential for reconstructive shifts in the context of how teachers learn together and the tools that support them in doing so